Magnetic Hydrogen Electrolyzer

[FarrahDay]

[Jehu]

[FarrahDay]

[sparkgap]

[sparkgap]

[AlaskaStar]

[resident_genius]

chemelec's design differers from AS's drastically as AS's design uses absolutely nothing electrically conductive in the area besides the sodium hydroxide.... therefore if chemelec's recreation doesnt do squat, that could be a reason why.

[resident_genius]

AS, how much did your PMA cost? i've only seen ones in the $250 range.

[FarrahDay]

Unless I'm missing something, you shouldn't really need to have to go down the alternator road, as surely an alternator is far more expensive than the couple of quids worth of electronic components needed to produce a variable square wave circuit - and don't you need something to drive it, ie an engine? I mean 555 timers are only a 17 pence each here in the UK.

Maybe it's just that I'm comfortable with the electronics, but to me the alternator route would seem not only to be much less versatile, but also bigger, awkward and more complicated to implement.

Don't forget, unlike the Meyer PWM that people were constructing at one time, we are not concerned with a second modulating cct. One 555 timer will suffice. I used just such a simple cct to produce decent (10mm) sparks from a car ignition coil I was playing around with. That's all you really need to get you up and running.

Alaska, I thought you were using a simple 555 timer cct at one point?

[sparkgap]

I wonder if a Bitter electromagnet would be useful for this project. This design has the highest magnetic field strenghth for a continuous field magnet (Guinness World Record) @ 45 tesla

Bitter electromagnet
"A Bitter electromangnet is an electromagnet made of plates of metal rather than coils of wire. This design was created and built in 1933 by Francis Bitter. In his honor the plates are known as Bitter plates. This type of electromagnet is also called a resistive magnet. Francis Bitter stacked alternating Bitter plates and insulators to form the magnet. This magnet requires extensive cooling because of the massive currents involved and usually the plates have holes drilled in them for chilled water to pass."

from: http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedi ... ctromagnet

This link has an easy educational article on making them:

http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/education/tut ... page2.html

Here is a slide on how one is put together:
http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/s ... index.html

Does anyone know of a cheap and readily available source of thin copper disks?

[AlaskaStar]

PMA Alternators are in the $200 to $300 range, and do require something to drive it (electric motor, engine....etc...)


A 555 timer circuit is what I used after I stopped using the 17.1 Mhz crystal.

The EMF waves from the 17.1 Mhz Crystal were quite strong and give a good headache when you are done.

I am trying different things with this right now as well, including driving an ignition coil to get higher voltages to use the high voltage spikes through the coil.

Experimenting with a shorter (length) coil that is Thicker, so a 3 inch long coil that is 3 inches in diameter. Stronger field strength....

I am also toying with the thought of having an insulated Neodymium Bar Magnet mounted inside the tube with a significant gap for the electrolyte to be surrounded by it, and having the coil wrapped around the big container, and the magnetic field will produce an interference wave, that will either stretch or repel and allow the Neodymium magnetic field to be stretched and snapped much like a rubber band or guitar string.

I really like this coil method, because there are a ton of variables and designs to play with and the ease of construction makes it nearly a toy in comparison of costs for materials and the results to be made.

AlaskaStar

[FarrahDay]

Hi Alaska,

you're certainly right about the variables, I guess we could all spend a lot of time trying different methods.

The neos will make for an interesting experiment, tho I personally would not expect you to get any better results because of the fact that they only exhibit a constant magnetic field, and it is the change in the magnetic field that is giving the results.

The important properties of a soft iron or ferrite core (or former) is that they do not stay magnetised between pulses or once the coil is deactivated. This of course means that there is a much greater change in magnetic field strength on each and every pulse. Materials that retain some magnetism would in effect reduce the overall difference in magnetic field strength as they themselves become more and more magnetised - hence the pulsing magnetic field produced by the coil becomes less and less effective.

It will be nice to be able to put some ideas into practice now, and no doubt very interesting when we are in a position to start recording some results.

I'm looking forward to getting my enamelled wire. I've got 3 x 1Kg rolls of 24 SWG on order.

[Jehu]

Sorry about confusing you with what I have said about my signal gen. Here is some info on it.


It is based on a 555 timer circuit and I think it was origanly designed by Silcion Chip magazine.

It output in square wave AC and sawtooth only AC only.

I brought it as a kit from either Dick Smith Electronics or from Jaycar Electronics, can't remember which.

Emameled wire can also be a problem for me too. Currently I am extending the coil I am using by joining multiple small reels of wire together. My thinking on this is that the extra resistance of the solder joints will also act as a resistor to limit the current.

[FarrahDay]

[FarrahDay]